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Composers & the Voice
"I can think of no better forum for a composer with a passion for learning the traditions of so-called progressive American opera theater than AOP’s program."
-- Daron Hagen, composer/guest C&V instructor
Each season American Opera Projects selects 6 composers to work with the company’s Resident Ensemble of Singers for its nationally recognized Composers & the Voice Workshop Series. The primary focus of the Composers & the Voice Series is to give composers extensive experience working collaboratively with singers on writing for the voice.
The Composers & the Voice Workshop Series includes 11 workshop sessions between November and May. Workshops periodically include in-depth exploration and involvement in the libretto-writing process and visits by established composers and librettists in the later workshop sessions. The composers are encouraged to take risks and push the boundaries, with the safety net of closed readings always in mind. These pieces are written on very tight deadlines, usually in 3 weeks, with revisions coming through conversations with the performers and fellow composers.
 Previous seasons of Composers & the Voice have featured guest lectures from noted artists such as composer Mark Adamo (Little Women, Lysistrata) and librettist Mark Campbell (Volpone, Songs from an Unmade Bed). “Composer Chairs,” sponsorships named in honor of mentors and their support of Composers & the Voice, include Mr. Adamo (pictured left, at a C&V party) and composers Tobias Picker, Richard Peaslee and Lee Hoiby, each of whom have made themselves available to our composers for one-on-one discussions and feedback.
Twice each year our Composers & the Voice program shifts from its closed, protective workshop setting and bursts into the public arena.
First Glimpse - May
Each composer has several solo works performed in May at the end of the working sessions.
Six Scenes - September
Each composer writes a 15-20 minute dramatic scene using multiple voices and piano. The six scenes are presented by the Resident Ensemble at the start of the next season in September.
We are happy to launch a partnership with Opera Index and Manhattan School of Music beginning with the 2005/06 workshop series. One of the six final scenes performed in September will be selected and presented in a staged performance the following March as part of Opera Index’s New American Voices showcase.
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Aleksandra Vrebalov
C&V composer (02-03)
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“The Composers & the Voice program was a door to opportunities and inspiring artistic challenges: I strengthened my writing for voice, had an opportunity to write for young singers of the highest caliber, wrote my first opera scene and heard it in the AOP “Six Scenes” performance.
During the C&V program, I met five other composers and, stimulated by the creative and collegial atmosphere at the workshop, we formed a composers’ collective, The South Oxford Six, that with help from AOP, presented its first concert in 2004. Further, my engagement with AOP directly led me to the Douglas Moore Fellowship, and residencies at Glimmerglass Opera and Opera Memphis. I have no words strong enough to emphasize - for composers interested in writing opera, AOP’s C&V program is the place to be!”
Aleksandra Vrebalov was recently awarded the 2007 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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